Right-Wing Restrictionists Blame Illegal Immigrants for Swine Flu

Last updated: July 31, 2020 | April 28, 2009 | Elisa Mueller

It was just a matter of time, but right-wing bloggers, restrictionist immigration groups and now even some politicians are blaming illegal immigrants and the government’s failure to keep them out for the swine flu pandemic.

Michelle Malkin writes, “hey maybe we’ll finally get serious about borders now,” adding that she’s “blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration,” but “open-borders ideologues” would never listen. “Maybe the threat of their sons or daughters contracting a deadly virus spread from south of the border to their Manhattan prep schools will.”

William Gheen, meanwhile, head of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, on Monday blamed the Obama administration for putting American lives at risk due to its “failure to secure our borders.” In a press release issued Tuesday, he called on Congress to “demand that the southern border be closed to all non essential traffic and that military troops are deployed to stop the nightly flow of thousands of illegal immigrants into America.”

Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) has jumped on the train, too. Yesterday, he called on the U.S. government to close the U.S.-Mexico border until the threat is resolved:

The epicenter of this outbreak is still in Mexico and while we now have several confirmed cases in the United States, we must consider all options to help reduce the number of new cases entering our nation. I’m glad that the White House has issued a travel advisory and is conducting passive screening at the border, but I think we should consider stronger measures at the border. I am in favor of using all tools available to reduce the spread of Swine Flu.

Other restrictionist bloggers are picking up on the theme, citing “illegal immigration” as the source of the flu: “Are we all going to die in the name of political correctness?” asks iReport.

Meanwhile, the latest reports suggest, as I wrote earlier, that the disease didn’t spread from illegal immigrants crossing the border, but from mounds of uncontrolled porcine fecal matter at a Mexican subsidiary of a U.S.-based pork processor.

Elisa Mueller | Elisa Mueller was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to a mother who taught reading and a father who taught film. As a result, she spent an excessive amount of her childhood reading books and watching movies. She went to the University of Kansas for college, where she earned bachelor's degrees in English and journalism. She moved to New York City and worked for Entertainment Weekly magazine for ten years, visiting film sets all over the world.